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Sunday, February 5, 2012

Small Home Stoup

Not to be hung, placed by bedside.  Probably France and probably around 1900.  Source is Wiki media.

Research slow on this one. I am getting a lot of "soup" recipes. So, I have been making these bowl like forms, sometimes "shell-like" in appearance, for awhile now. My intent was to put water in them, as I made them out of material that would hold water, but somehow that idea kept getting put on the back burner. I do remember seeing home stoups when I was a kid - I think in my grandmother's house. I am interested in the time and care one takes to make one these and the need/desire people have/had to keep in their home. I am assuming there was a time when these items were massed produced. Most likely home stoups were mass produced after the Industrial Revolution - which I am assuming the one above is an example of. The structure was created to hold Holy Water so people could bless themselves in their home - most usually at night, before bed. Holy Water warded off evil spirits and forgave sins. So, this concept, of Holy Water, makes it necessary to construct this form. The form is literally a container for the idea. The object provides a service needed to satisfy a need/desire. Who created the need/desire? And why do people believe?

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Rabbit's Foot

Why and how do objects hold memory for us? I remembered when I was kid that I had a rabbit's foot. With this memory I realized how awful it is to have an animal part for good luck - although the rabbit's foot may not have been real. I remember running my hands over the form and feeling the nails. I think my memory was jogged by scratching Buttercup (the dog) and then playing with her feet. Anyway, my interest in why we make and keep objects has been propelled since I started teaching visual culture. I also noticed that when I go to museum's I am taking a lot of images of objects for good luck, afterlife, etc... Egypt, 19th century sailors decorating carved whale bones for their loved one to insert in their corset.

Victorian silver mounted rabbit's foot charm.  

The sense of touch, sense of space. The small objects I make are all about the sense of touch. I am interested in how we have always made objects to label us and remind us. Touching these objects equally important as seeing them. Diane Ackerman's book, A Natural History of the Senses is discusses all the senses. Also, Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial is important here - she gave us a monument to touch. I am more interested in the smaller, intimate objects of a culture - the objects we stow away, we hide, we keep near us, we wear on our body. The objects we assign meaning to.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Studio, May 2011












Female Surrealist Painters

Leonora Carrington, Letter to Dana


Remedios Varo, Bordando el Manto Terrestre